Chick Chick Hooray!

We have chickens! On Thursday Pete drove up to our favorite feed store in Hurley and came back with five little chicks.  I was so happy that we could get them locally and not have to worry about getting them through the mail.   The last time something live came to us via the post office there was an escape and I didn't want that to happen again. (See the March posting Worms Invade Mercer)

Dancing Chicken

Before I show you the chicks I should tell you that Pete finished the chicken coop about a week ago. It was really designed with the chickens in mind - keeping them safe and comfortable. Pete stopped just short of putting in a stereo system for them.

Our Cool Coop

Maddie Jo and I inspected the finished product. The construction is solid and should keep the chickens safe from the weather and predators.

Maddie circles the
chicken coop

"Where are the
 chickens?"

The inside has all kinds of chicken amenities including nesting boxes, perches, lighting, sliding windows with screening and a nice big feeder.

Nesting Box

Ceiling Lights

"Enough about the coop - where are the chickens?"

Introducing the Fab Five

We have four Ameraucana Araucana chicks and one Brown Star.  The Brown Star, which must be some relation to the Red Star, is golden (she's on the far left) and will lay brown eggs. The Araucanas are brown, grey, white and gold striped and will lay blue/green eggs.

Brown Star Chick

The Araucanas each have different  markings.

We have not named the chicks yet. We need to see their personalities first.  Pete likes the name Chicken Little. I want something chicken or egg related like Henrietta, Lorraine (quiche lorraine), Frita (frittata), or Lettie (Omelette). Barb, one of my colleagues, found a wonderful website that lists chicken names - just like a baby name site. All About Chicken Names  - check it out.  Odd though, I got to the G's and noticed both Goosie and Goobles were listed. Who would name a chicken Goosie?  I think these names may not have been vetted for chickens specifically.

For now our five little chicks are living in a cardboard box inside the tub in the second floor bathroom. I know it doesn't sound very glamourous, but it keeps them away from the curious eyes, noses and mouths of the dogs.  They won't be able to move into their lakeside chicken chateau until they are bigger. That's okay though; it will give me time to do some special chicken landscape design.




I was thinking of planting sunflowers, amaranth, mustard and marigolds after reading that chickens seem to enjoy these plants. I could always get a little fancier though.


Now our little family consists of 2 crazy people, 3 digging dogs, 1 French cat, 1000 squirmy worms and 5 cute little chicks.

"We are cute, aren't we!"

An Apple Today

Pete and I had been planning to put in some fruit trees and we did a little research online and determined that we could plant apple, cherry and pear varieties that would be hardy enough for zone 3.  We don't have the patience of Johnny Appleseed to wait for small seeds to turn into big trees and luckily we don't have to because Joe and Gwen generously sent us a gift certificate for Northern Pines Greenery Nursery. We set off this morning for Minocqua in search of fruit trees.

This little bulldog and his owner helped us find two nice apple trees at Northern Pines. If you expect to have apples you need to have two trees and they need to be different types. We found the Honeycrisp that we wanted and then came upon another variety also developed by the University of Minnesota, SnowSweet. Both cultivars are midseason ripeners and cold hardy.

Pete strapping down
the apple trees

The Honeycrisp has been around since 1991 and in the last few years it has really become popular up here. SnowSweet was first introduced in 2006. We really enjoyed the Honeycrisp apples we picked up in Door County last fall and it will be great to have our own some day. SnowSweet apples have been described as sweet and buttery - they had me right there - love butter, love buttery.

Loading up the lilac

We headed south to Stoney Creek to check out their fruit tree inventory. Northern Pines didn't have any cherry or pear trees. Stoney Creek had a sour cherry, but no sweet cherry trees.  After talking to one of the nurserywomen we found out they would put us on their wait list. In the meantime we picked up four raspberry plants and a pretty Purple Lilac in honor of Gwen. Again, we pulled out a Stoney Creek gift certificate from Joe and Gwen. Thank you very much!

Pete waiting for our order

Before we headed home to Mercer Pete and I decided to try out the much talked-about, newly-opened for the season, Hoggie Doggies. Pete had a Chicago Dog, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and we both had the greatest fries I've had in awhile. We ate outside and enjoyed the sunny afternoon.

Pete, Chicago dog,
fries and a Coke

I always wanted a big pink pet
pig and this may be the 
closest I get for awhile.

Back home on Payment Lake to plant our trees.

Pete dug and dug,

and dug some more.

Gracie dug and dug,

and Asher dug too.

While Pete dug the holes in a sunny, lakeside spot the dogs had other ideas. They headed into the woods and decided to dig a huge Redwood size hole in another area.





In the end, Pete provided the perfect placement and the dogs' hole may turn into a root cellar.

"I guess it looks okay here."

 I hope we'll get a cherry tree soon and we're still on the lookout for pear trees. Stay tuned for news of our little orchard.

Food from Near and Far

 

I am so excited to finally see organic produce at the local grocery store. For the past two weeks Snow's Family Market has had an incredible variety of organic lettuce and greens. I've been buying as much as I think we can eat and more to encourage them to keep it coming.

Asher has been doing his part too. He loves salad - it's the oil in the dressing he really loves.

Now that summer is approaching I hope the farmers markets and our own garden will provide us with some good produce. 

A big thanks goes to Jere for helping us out through the winter with a gift subscription to Harry & David's Fruit of the Month club.  On Thursday we received March's selection - a box of carefully packed strawberries.

We also found that the local SHARE Wisconsin non-profit food buying club/co-op had a nice box of organic vegetables and vegetables that we could order once a month. You don't really know what you're going to get, but it was always good and I often bought two boxes.

Gwen and Joe also helped us out with hard to get items. We were delighted by the packages of coffee, nuts, Pete's beef jerky and especially the dog's favorite Costco dog treats.

One day UPS delivered a box from California and I just put it on the table to wait for Pete to come home. Maddie kept circling the table and wouldn't settle down. I finally put the box on the floor to let her see it. Seeing is not believing - she needed to get inside. She wouldn't let Asher help, but he could watch.

Her efforts were rewarded when she found two boxes of doggie jerky from Gwen and Joe. She  protectively carried one of the boxes around the house.

This summer we should be harvesting food from our very own garden.  The radishes and spinach are coming up.

Radishes

Spinach

On Sunday I planted two varieties of peas, arugula, nasturtiums, ten asparagus plants and two rhubarb plants. As the weather gets warmer more will go into the garden - stay tuned.

Pea Poles

Happy Syttende Mai

I know I said I was going to stop decorating the dogs for the holidays, but I don't think taping a bumper sticker to Asher's butt counts. I just used a curl of masking tape and he didn't seem to mind. I don't think he knows he's of German descent, so why spoil the Syttende Mai celebration for him.

I used to say Syttende Mai was Norway's Independence Day, but it's not really. On May 17th 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was signed, announcing Norway's independence after 400 years of Danish and the humiliation of being given to Sweden by the Danes after they were defeated in the Napoleonic Wars. Unfortunately, Sweden did not recognize Norway's constitution and the country did not actually become independent until 1905.

Today May 17th is celebrated with parades, festivals and parties in Norway and in Norwegian communities across the United States. On Ashe Road we celebrated by baking a Kransekake.

For the whole run down on Kransekake, or crown cake, check out my December 30th post titled, Karen & Beth Make Kransekake. In this Spring episode Beth & the Weimaraners make Kransekake.

Is the house tilted?

I made the rings on Sunday and froze them. This evening all we had to do was make the icing and put the cake together.

The dogs watched the process carefully.


They were very good and tried their best to ignore the finished cake and pretended not to be tempted.

"What cake? We don't see any cake."

Their reward came when it was time to clean up.

They licked the beater clean.

Asher took charge of the bowl.


Next year I think we'll do a little advance planning and use Norwegian dog bowls like the one below from Vesterheim, the Norweigian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa.

The only thing left to do is track down my little Norwegian flags and decorate the Kransekake.

Happy Syttende Mai

After I looked back on the prior Kransekake post I noticed I never put the recipe in.  Here it is:

Kransekake Rings

2 cups butter

2 cups powdered sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons almond extract

8 ounces almond paste

5 cups flour

• Combine ingredients, form dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for an hour or so.
• You need to have special Kransekake ring tins. You might be able to find them at Scandinavian specialty shops, but you can also order them online.
• Grease the tins, take a dough ball out of the refrigerator, tear off a hunk and form/mold it into a tin. Then another tin, and another and another. Your set may have 12, 18, 24, 36 or more tins. I believe the recipe above will do up to 18 tins.
• Place tins on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
• Cool tins before attempting to remove the cookie-like cake.
• Construct cone shaped cake with the frosting recipe that follows.

Icing

1/4 cup butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon almond extract